Victoria Boulevard and adjacent streets were laid out in 1888 by local entrepreneur James S. Darling as a complement to his newly constructed electric railway, the first on the Peninsula. Essentially built out by 1920, the neighborhood early became one of Hampton’s most fashionable residential areas, one made up primarily of spacious, free-standing houses occupied by business leaders and professionals. The first houses made use of the Queen Anne style but the later dwellings are assertive examples of the Colonial Revival, a reflection of Hampton’s position as the nation’s oldest English-speaking community. A variety of American Foursquare houses are part of the last wave of construction here. Despite the diversity of forms, the area is unified by a homogeneity of scale and materials. Nearly every house is skirted by a hospitable front porch, used as living rooms during Hampton’s warm evenings.